A former pig farmer has bounced back from unemployment to achieve international success - in art.

A former pig farmer has bounced back from unemployment to achieve international success - in art.

Lynn Martin, 41, worked on a farm in Newby, near Middlesbrough, for 20 years before a decline in the industry forced her to leave. She then lost her job in a garden centre as the foot and mouth disease outbreak led to the closure of her department.

But the determined mum-of-two used the opportunity to take on an old hobby - painting on silk.

Now she is making around 50 items a week and has her first exhibition in place at Stokesley Library this week. It runs until Saturday.

"I decided I was going to do something for myself," said Mrs Martin, of Cherrywood Avenue, Stokesley. "It has been a complete change in lifestyle."

Mrs Martin completed a foundation course at the Cleveland College of Art as a teenager.

But she became interested in pigs at the farm where she kept her horse.

She took up a job offer and for 20 years had to be up at the crack of dawn.

But now she is glad to be working strictly indoors.

She said: "Now I can work from home and see more of my children. And I have learnt to live without the smell!"

She decorates various silk items, from ties and scarves to purses, as well as making silk paintings.

For eight months she has been touring craft fairs in the North with her business Silks by Lynn, with her own range of items, as well as making them on commission.

And her distinct work is gradually getting noticed. She even has clients in America.